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What is the ruling regarding a man saying to his wife: "You will be divorced from me if you come to know, love, and wish for someone other than me as a husband," and does a divorce occur if that happens, and is there any expiation for that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A husband should not condition his wife’s divorce upon matters that may occur without her will. If he conditions the divorce upon stipulations connected by the conjunction “wa” (and), then if his intention was for the divorce to occur upon any of the stipulations, it occurs upon the fulfillment of any of them. However, if he had no specific intention, the divorce does not occur unless all the stipulated conditions are fulfilled. So, if a man says to his wife: “You are divorced if you know and love someone other than me and wish him to be your husband instead of me”; the divorce does not occur unless all these conditions are met. If what the divorce was conditioned upon occurs, the divorce takes place according to the majority of scholars, and the husband may reconcile with his wife before the expiry of her iddah, provided this divorce does not complete the third divorce.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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